Family/Familia

Hey All!

Well I'm posting this in the Toronto airport (yay for free wifi!) and I guess I should tell you that I arrived here safe and sound. It's almost 1 and I'm just waiting for my bus but I assume that should go fine as well. Anyways the rest of this blog was written in Miami but their wifi is expensive so it didn't get posted until now, anyways enjoy!

Well I’m now officially back in North America, in the Miami Airport drinking a Starbucks coffee, the coffee is amazing by the way. Although this will not be posted until later because I’m not willing to pay $5 for 30 minutes of wifi. Anyways I’m thinking to myself, how did I get to this point. The point where I feel like South America is my home, Bolivia is my home, the guys and Ken’s house are my family. And it’s a cool thought, I know I still have a home and family back in Saskatoon and I am very excited to go home but I also have another home, and a family in Bolivia who I already miss like crazy. Those guys are my brothers and the people I worked with were my closest friends, the kids I hung out with are like my kids and in every way I miss all of them. I think I like the way my pastor in Bolivia said it: “Remember all of us and let your family and your church family in Canada know that you also have a family here in Bolivia”. It’s not that I’m replacing one for the other, it’s that I now have two and I feel truly blessed!

I’m already trying to make plans to visit again in a year, and it’s looking good that it will happen so that is super exciting! And while I am in Canada I will definitely keep in contact with everyone back in Bolivia, but I need to not live missing the people where I’m not.  I realised the reverse of this part way through my time in Bolivia. I was really missing my family and friends back home but then I realised it was just lessening my experience there and holding me back in my relationships with the people there, and I think that the same goes for this. Like I need to continue to work at my relationships in Bolivia and keep in contacts but I have to remember that where I am is where God wants me to be right now and so I shouldn’t live with regret or anything like that. So I find joy in that and excitement at where God is taking me next. So to all you friends and family in Canada I can’t wait to see you and thanks for being so awesome while I’m there and while I was away! And for those of you in Bolivia, I will see you again soon hopefully and don’t worry I won’t forget about you and you are some of my dearest and closest friends! And to all of you God Bless!

Shalom – Michael

God's Protection

Hey everyone,

So I was planning on blogging today about what I've been up to on my road trip. To tell you guys about all the cool things I've been up to like visiting Lake Titicaca and things like that, but plans change. So today I had an experience I will never forget. We were heading from La Paz back to Cochabamba, driving through the Andes mountains and our brakes went out. We were coming down the mountain and just kept gaining speed since we couldn't break and we were quickly approaching a semi so Yimy (one of the guys from Ken's home who was driving) went into the on coming traffic lane. 
Unfortunately there was a taxi right there and so we swerved again, clipping the side of the car and went careening down the mountain. We bounced a bunch and side note Tim and I were not wearing seat belts, smart right? Well that's a Bolivian thing, anyways at one point we were almost on our side and we really should have flipped but for some reason we didn't. Then we came to a stop for no apparent reason other than God was protecting us. Well we got out of the car without any injuries other than Ken's friend Amy who had a small cut on her forehead from her sunglasses, God is amazing! Then we look around, 5 feet father we would have hit a drop off and falling onto a bunch of rocks and a few feet in either direction would have caused us to flip, God definitely was watching over us! Anyways all in all it was a crazy experience and one which God was definitely watching over us, and to show you a little more clearly what happened I'll post some pictures of this in the coming days.

So one quick prayer request out of this. Well I guess two, first off praise and thanks to God for His protection. Secondly pray for Yimy. He is a guy from Ken's transition home and his faith is a little rocky right now, he's an amazing guy but he's just really unsure about faith. He says he doesn't believe and we are all really praying for him. Right before the accident actually Ken was talking with him about needing to put full faith in God and if you're in the middle you never know what could happen. So we are really hoping that this enforces that and that God is using this situation to move in Yimy's life and hopefully out of this he will become a strong believer.

Shalom and God Bless

Michael

The Jungle

Hey guys, two posts in one night, I know crazy, well no worries this one will be short. Anyways this is the promised second post about our trip into the jungle. It was pretty crazy from the get go. First off the last night with the team I didn’t fall asleep until  2:30 in the morning and then woke up at 5:30 to go with the team to the airport. After they got through security it was 7 and we didn’t get to our place until 7:30, then we repacked and met Marco (the guy taking us on our trip) at 8:30. We spent the day picking stuff up and then headed on a long and bumpy drive. We got there and went to bed. The next day we got up and drove around finding people who wanted a well dug and had money to pay. The next two days we dug wells, one each day. It went really well and was super cool to get to work with the families and rewarding to get to dig wells for those that need it. Anyways it was all in all a rewarding trip and a huge blessing to get to go.

Shalom and God Bless

Michael

New Experiences - SCS Team

Hey Guys,

So thought I’d give you an update on the last couple weeks because they have been super full and exciting, and I have not blogged about anything I’ve done for a long time. So two weeks ago the SCS team came and Tim and I had the opportunity to work with the team the entire time they were here, it was almost like we were part of the team which was super cool. It was also super fun for me because I knew a lot of the team members and had even had the opportunity to coach a few of them in SR. Guys volleyball this past fall. Needless to say it was a super awesome experience. I got to connect quite a bit with some of the guys and I’m excited to hang out with them when I get home. Anyways, while they were here we got to work with a few different ministries outside of Ken’s place. Such as: El Jordan, Mission Timoteo, YWAM Bolivia and we also got to go to the women’s prison.

Even though we have been here for 4 months, it was an eye opening experience even for me because we got to work and do things we don’t normally do down here. Such as we got to go into the canals and spend time with the street kids. Like we get to work with a lot of people coming off the streets and have talked to random people we’ve met while walking on the streets but nothing so direct. Like these were the kids who were super high and lived in the darkest of places. It was a good reminder of where the people we work with come from. Like all of the guys in Ken’s house lived on the streets, most for more than five years and sometimes it’s easy to forget. They are such amazing guys and often it’s hard to even notice that they have a different past than you and me. So anyways it was definitely a blessing to get to do that with the team.

The other awesome part about being with the team was seeing the growth in the youth. I remember how impactful this trip was for me when I got to go and it was cool to see the same thing happening for some members of the group. I was talking with Tim after the team left and even he was able to see growth in members of the team, even without knowing them beforehand, so it was definitely cool that there was that much change in them. All in all the time with the team was an extreme blessing and I am super lucky to have gotten that experience as I don’t think any SCS alumni have ever had that chance before. Anyways that is a quick update on my time with the team and if you want to know more feel free to email me or talk to me when I get home. Also later on I will do a second post about the trip we took into the jungle right after the team left.

Anyways God Bless,

Shalom - Michael

Lessons

Hey Guys,

This again is not a blog about any specific events in Bolivia but rather about lessons I have been learning, so there's your warning now you are informed and can decide whether to keep reading or not.

Anyways here goes... So this past month I feel that God has been trying to teach me about possessions. Specifically that possessions in this life are not important. That doesn't mean we can't have possessions, it just means we need to be careful how much value we put in them. And this is how God taught me...

So on my trip to Bolivia I brought down 3 items which I was trying very hard not to get wrecked, these 3 items were the most expensive and therefore in my mind the most important to keep safe. They were my: Ipod, Camera, and Laptop. Then about a month ago my Ipod was stolen, bummer deal. I was disappointed but you know I realized it was just a thing and so I got over it pretty quickly. But apparently I hadn't learned my lesson because yesterday was Children's Day and we had taken about 50 kids from El Jordan to the zoo. So for obvious reasons I took my camera along. So once we got there I pulled it out and started snapping pictures of the kids. The first few turned out fine but then in a matter of about 3 seconds, my camera broke. I don't know how or why, but it did. I took a photo, it was clear everything was good and then I took another one and it was all out of focus. Now I don't know a lot about the inner workings of camera's but from what I can tell the internal focusing mechanism broke. I say this because no matter whether it's on manual or auto focus, the pictures come out blurry, every time. Anyways this really kind of put a bummer on my day and was a lot harder to take than losing my Ipod because now I don't have any way to take photo's of what I'm doing while down here, but oh well though that's life. Luckily Tim, the guy I'm here with, still has a camera so I'm just getting all of his photo's for the rest of the trip.

Anyways that's what's happened lately to my stuff and I think maybe God was telling me that although it's not bad to have these things, we can't put too much value in them because they are earthly and can be gone in an instant. Anyways I think/ hope I learned my lesson and hopefully my laptop wont disappear or get broken because I need it for school next year! Anyways I feel it's a good reminder and we should all once in a while look at our lives and at our possessions and make sure that God is first and that we have our priorities straight. And not only that but even if possessions are not first in our lives, that we don't put to much value in the things of this earth (Matthew 6:19-21).

Well that's all for now, God bless.
Shalom Michael

Perspective

Hey guys,

So I have been realizing that the length in between posts has been getting consistently longer and I'm sorry about that. So I thought I would just explain a bit of why that is so. When I first got to Bolivia everything was new and exciting so it was easy for me to blog about what was happening. But the longer I am here the more life here seems to be normal. Not in a bad way mind you, so let me explain.

I don't feel like the wonders of life is out of the ordinary anymore, and I think it's the way it should be. God is always working, we just often don't notice Him. Life is fresh and new each day, we often just take it for granted. Love should be the center of our lives everyday, but most of the time we get bogged down with life's worries, struggles and temptations and forget. So be encouraged! Live life the way God intended it, TO THE FULL. If we all put aside what we thought was important and lived more for what God wanted this world would be a different place. If we all looked at the people around us and saw Jesus, no one would feel lonely or left out. And when I say the people around us, I don't just mean our friends and family, I mean everyone. The cashier at the grocery store, the homeless man on the side of the street, that person that hurt you in the past and swore you'd never talk to again, everyone. If we all took a moment to show these people love, I think that maybe, just maybe they would see something different in you and long for what you have. We are supposed to be Jesus' hands and feet, so lets start acting like it. Love everyone, thank God for the small things, step out in faith. I think that if we do that, we will never be disappointed.

That does not mean life wont get hard or that you wont have a bad day. It doesn't mean you wont make mistakes and that you will never feel lonely again. But it does mean that you will have a new meaning in life. The meaning that God intended. He tells us that, "each man's life is but a breath" (Psalm 39:5) and what God wants for this short life is for us to come into relationship with Him. So he made that possible by giving "his one and only Son" (John 3:16) and that son told us what we are to do during out life here on earth, to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). So this is our call to make disciples and our example of how to do that is Jesus. A man who lived a life of love, who gave of himself for others and loved everyone regardless of what others thought. This is our example and although we can never live completely as Jesus did, our goal should be to try.

So go out and love, brighten someones day, love doesn't have to be big, you don't need to travel the globe to serve Jesus and love, just love the people you meet where you are today. And if you are called to go somewhere, listen. Who are we to deny what God asks of us, so take today to make a commitment to change. It wont be instantaneous, and we wont always remember, but should that stop us? No, so go, go and love.

Shalom and Blessings,
Michael
Oh and lots of love

The Mennonite Colonies

Hey Guys again sorry for the length of time between posts, I've just been doing other things I suppose. Well anyways the other weekend we went to Pailon and we got to see first hand what the Mennonite colonies live like down in Bolivia. First off what we saw was not what every colony is like, there are a huge range of what these colonies live like and this is just what we saw and were told.

That being said it is for the most part a very sad situation. Most of the colonies (not all but most) still live without technology of any kind. Some groups don't even allow tractors, others only tractors with metal wheels. All in all not an easy situation to live. That is not the sad part however, the sad part is how they live with all the strictest rules that regard to their faith but they don't have any true faith.

What I mean is this, all their sermons are in High German but the people only understand and speak Low German being they don't actually know what is being taught for the most part. In a lot of cases even the pastor doesn't understand the sermons, but they are handed down from pastor to pastor so they just rotate through the pre-written sermons. Also for the longest time Low German was not a written language and only 10 years ago was it written down, at which point and Low German Bible was written which would make it possible for the people to read the Bible for themselves. But the heirarchy in the colonies have decided that the High German Bible is the proper Bible and so the Low German one has been forbidden. So the people are again stuck without being able to read about their faith.In some colonies if you are caught with a German Bible you will be kicked out of the colony, this is a very scary fact for them because they are told that those who have the power to kick them out of the colony also have the ability to kick them out of Heaven and the two go hand in hand. So these people live in a constant state of fear and it is very sad.

Also because their faith is not one built on knowledge but on fear, a lot of bad happens in the colonies today. Drinking is a huge issue and so is abuse. Another big issue is rape, apparently it is not uncommon for a father to rape his own children. All in all it is a very sad situation. That being said there is hope!

Through ministries like the one we visited, the people are learning about their faith and it is changing their lives and the lives of their colonies. This specific ministry was a radio ministry. They run Christian radio programming for the Mennonite and Quechua (indigenous group) people. This is a huge blessing for these people because it is often the first time that they are able to hear the Bible preached with true faith and love. In the Mennonite colonies the people often have hidden hand held radio's in their houses so that they can listen. As well many of the colonies are now progressing forward which is awesome to see.

We visited a Mennonite church in one of the colonies that has changed as a result of these ministries. It was cool to see, because although they still had a lot of their traditions in place such as their clothing and modest lifestyles, there was room for growth. They had microphones and things in their service which is huge for progression and their service was in Low German so the people can understand and it was actually planned specifically for that week rather than a set sermon that the people have hear hundreds of times. And not only that but the people also had their own Bibles so that they could learn and grow. It was truly an awesome thing to see! We were only in the community for on morning but we could clearly see the hope in that colony which is so different from a lot of the colonies down here. We also drove through a couple other colonies and were told about them so if you want to know more you can message me. 

Anyways all in all it was definitely an eye opening trip and these people really need ministries like the radio ministry we visited so if you could pray for that that would be wonderful! Well I hope you have had a God filled and bless last few weeks and I will try and start posting more regularly again.

Shalom and God Bless

Michael